Wow, the sense of anti-climax there :), I thought you you was onto somthing :lol:

Can you spot my lightened flywheel as well, mmm tasty.

Looking at your pic I kind of get the feeling that ring has been in that position for a long while, there's no marks showing it's moved along the shaft recently.

That is a dirt/water thrower and it's in the wrong place !! There is rust in the drive shaft between it and the box!! I'll take a pic of mine if it ever stops raining but going from memory mine is closer to the box than that.

No is hanging loose there, I just moved for a better photo, its a lot larger than the driver shaft, it just gets tight when you try to seat it on the gearbox.

Right, I think i am misunderstanding what it does, I think it does NOT connect to the gearbox, but just sit on the end of the drive shaft, that makesw sense if its a dirt thrower.

This is as close to the gearbox I can get it.

http://i790.photobucket.com/albums/y...e/IMAG0329.jpg

I agree, looking at the witness mark it suggests that's where it sat before.

Does this ring actually do anything if it sits that far off the housing? In any other application that would be called a Nilos Ring if sat far enough into the housing but looking at it, it won't be that or do that job.

Well I tried to.seat it on spare gearbox and it does not fit, its too small so this is only place it can go.

It's purpose is to help keep stuff off the seal in the box. The shaft is parallel so contaminants could run up the shaft causing seal damage so this dohiky stops that happening!! There is a CV joint on the other drive shaft so this wouldn't happen there.